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Job 7
Is there not a warfare to man upon earth?
And are not his days like the days of a hireling?
2 As a servant that earnestly desires the shadow,
And as a hireling that looks for his wages:
3 So am I made to possess months of misery,
And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
4 When I lie down, I say,
When shall I arise, and the night be gone?
And I am full of tossings to and fro to the dawning of the day.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;
My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
And are spent without hope.
7 Oh remember that my life is a breath:
My eye shall no more see good.
8 The eye of him that sees me shall behold me no more;
Your eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.
9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
So he that goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.
10 He shall return no more to his house,
Neither shall his place know him any more.
11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,
That you set a watch over me?
13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall ease my complaint;
14 Then you scare me with dreams,
And terrify me through visions:
15 So that my soul chooses strangling,
And death rather than these my bones.
16 I loathe my life; I would not live always:
Let me alone; for my days are vanity.
17 What is man, that you should magnify him,
And that you should set your mind upon him,
18 And that you should visit him every morning,
And try him every moment?
19 How long will you not look away from me,
Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
20 If I have sinned, what do I to you, O you watcher of men?
Why have you set me as a mark for you,
So that I am a burden to myself?
21 And why did you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust;
And you will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.
Job 8
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 How long will you speak these things?
And how long shall the words of your mouth be like a mighty wind?
3 Does El pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4 If your children have sinned against him,
And he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression;
5 If you would seek diligently to El,
And make your supplication to the Almighty;
6 If you were pure and upright:
Surely now he would awake for you,
And make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
7 And though your beginning was small,
Yet your latter end would greatly increase.
8 For inquire, I pray you, of the former age,
And apply yourself to that which their fathers have searched out:
9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
10 Shall not they teach you, and tell you,
And utter words out of their heart?
11 Can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?
12 While it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down,
It withers before any other herb.
13 So are the paths of all that forget El;
And the hope of the lawless man shall perish:
14 Whose confidence shall break in pieces,
And whose trust is a spider’s web.
15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand:
He shall hold fast by it, but it shall not endure.
16 He is green before the sun,
And his shoots go forth over his garden.
17 His roots are wrapped about the stone-heap,
He beholds the place of stones.
18 If he be destroyed from his place,
Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen you.
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way;
And out of the earth shall others spring.
20 Behold, El will not cast away a perfect man,
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
And your lips with shouting.
22 They that hate you shall be clothed with shame;
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.
Job 9
Then Job answered and said
2 Of a truth I know that it is so:
But how can man be just with El?
3 If he be pleased to contend with him,
He cannot answer him one of a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength:
Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
5 Him that removes the mountains, and they know it not,
When he overturns them in his anger;
6 That shakes the earth out of its place,
And the pillars of it tremble;
7 That commands the sun, and it rises not,
And seals up the stars:
8 That alone stretches out the heavens,
And treads upon the waves of the sea;
9 That makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;
10 That does great things past finding out,
Yes, marvelous things without number.
11 Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not:
He passes on also, but I perceive him not.
12 Behold, he seizes the prey, who can hinder him?
Who will say to him, What are you doing?
13 Eloah will not withdraw his anger,
The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
14 How much less shall I answer him,
And choose out my words to reason with him?
15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer;
I would make supplication to my judge.
16 If I had called, and he had answered me,
Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.
17 For he breaks me with a tempest,
And multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer me to take my breath,
But fills me with bitterness.
19 If we speak of strength, lo, he is mighty!
And if of justice, Who, says he, will summon me?
20 Though I be righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me:
Though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse.
21 I am perfect; I regard not myself;
I despise my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
He destroys the perfect and the wicked.
23 If the scourge kills suddenly,
He will mock at the trial of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
He covers the faces of the judges of it:
If it be not he, who then is it?
25 Now my days are swifter than a post:
They flee away, they see no good.
26 They are passed away as the swift ships;
As the eagle that swoops on the prey.
27 If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad countenance, and be of good cheer;
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that you will not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned;
Why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow water,
And make my hands never so clean;
31 Yet will you plunge me in the ditch,
And my own clothes shall abhor me.
32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
That we should come together in judgment.
33 There is no umpire between us,
That might lay his hand upon us both.
34 Let him take his rod away from me,
And let not his terror make me afraid:
35 Then would I speak, and not fear him;
For I am not so in myself.
